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BernardVC

Listed below are comments made by BernardVC between Tuesday, 21st April 2009 and Saturday, 26th September 2009.

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The capital of Europe? 5:55pm on 26 Sep 2009 "If my friends opinions are anything to go by, the francophone Belgians would rather have their legs sawn off than let their country become part of France"

ah yes, that's why it's always the flemish part of the country that has to make the sacrifices in name of Belgium not?
Charming Brussels 09:50am on 01 Aug 2009 mufc_nz wrote:
"Brussels made up of Flemish and french speakers who hate each other, I prefer the french. Being Indian I lived in a small village called ottenborg, Flemish, mistake!, during local election the right wing got 70% of votes. Strange people, racists and rude."

Maybe you should have made a bit more of an effort to integrate. The flemish don't like to be sneered at, insulted for racists and called egoists. Especially not by francophones and anyone percieved to be on "their side". We send too many billions down Brussels and Wallonia way for that.
No noble gas from North Korea blast 9:58pm on 11 Jun 2009 May I add that you have to see the use of the first bombs in the context of the war:
- Japan had not yet surrendered
- the US were planning the conventional invasion of the Japanese Home Islands and were very worried that the Japanese would put up a resistance of the same type as in Okinawa and Iwo Jima.
In effect the bombs were the more humane solution: the conventional invasion would have killed and wounded hundreds of thousands, and probably millions of soldiers (japanese and American) and civilians.
A walk on the Wilders side 11:34am on 02 Jun 2009 @ people claiming that this blog tries to make the link between rightists and ant-EU-feelings...
Anyone who's a bit aware of the different countries and their politics in the Europe will know that there are more than enough left-wing parties whoa re EU-sceptic.
Right-wingers are usually a bit more screptic but it's hardly like they're the only ones.
Sleepwalking to the polls 1:29pm on 19 May 2009 @103. Buzet23:

Usually the amount of ballots that were blanco (and even spoilt) can be determined. Afaik, you usually get the amount of valid votes made when the results are made public.

As for the best way for southern belgians to voice their disapproval with the current politicians... Simple: move north, learn dutch, become flemish. :-D More parties to vote for too.
Sleepwalking to the polls 12:50pm on 18 May 2009 @suffolkboy regarding Turkey:

The UK is a big proponent of letting Turkey into the EU. The rest of Europe, not so much.
Sleepwalking to the polls 12:45pm on 18 May 2009 #41 Buzet
In Belgium voting is obligatory and there is no 'null' or 'no suitable candidate' box, some people claim a spoilt paper is recorded as such and some claim the vote is allocated across the parties. I would like to see the Lists having a box where disenchanted voters can register their disapproval if there exists no candidate with whom they are comfortable, but then that would be democratic I guess

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Spoilt votes and Blanco votes are two different things:
- a spoilt vote is where you deliberately ruin your ballot (if its paper) or if you repeatedly refuse to use the magnetcard (the bankcard-like thing) that's needed to register the vote.
- a blanco vote is if you don't color any dot at all (on paper) or by chosing the option "blanco vote" with electronic.

neither spoilt votes or blanco votes are counted or given to any party.

[Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]
it's in dutch but that shouldn't be a barrier in this day and age.

So it is perfectly possible to register your disapproval by not voting on anyone.
French rebel with a cause 09:39am on 13 May 2009 @jeandenice & DupontdeNemours

you've been suckered by MAII. He's the forum-troll, and as with all trolls it's advisable to ignore him instead of feading it.
The right qualifications 4:36pm on 06 May 2009 The chinese like to call themselves a developing nation, and in a way (and certainly for millions of chinese) that is indeed true. However, I doubt the rest of the world will continue to accept that label given that the Chinese economy is one of the largest in the world.

Regardless, it's china's right to claim what it claims and say that it won't accept restrictions in regards to the pollution it generates. But once the predicted climate-induced misery starts to hit the globe it needn't be surprised that the fingers will be pointing its way.
In that case it might be the best-case scenario that big climate-induced disasters hit China first (and hard) in order to drive the point home: the system doesn't care who put the pollution in the air or water, the only thing that matters for the system is that the pollution is there, and the only way to solve this thing is if everyone -including China- does what needs to be done.
EU split over racism conference 2:46pm on 21 Apr 2009 Several things strike me as ridiculous at best and hypocritical or ignorant at worst:

1) the way people deny Israel the right to term itself as a Jewish state. I don't hear these same people decrying the many muslim states that call themselves "Islamic republic" this or that. As long as Israel guarantees the rights of all its citizens there's no problem with calling itself a Jewish state. And we know that Israel will be a far better guarantor of rights than any muslim state has even been.

2) the idea that it is Israel that must solve the conflict, as if the arabs are a passive party in this. The arabs are anything but a passive party. For the past 60 years they've been making one bad choice after another: from trying to wipe out the jews and their state, to refusing peace and recognition after several defeats to proposing "peace-plans" that are nothing but attempts to destroy Israel via the back-door. It's time for the arabs to propose a real peace-proposal instead of bogus plans and palatitudes that don't even succeed in disguising the hatred for all things jewish they have.

3) the idea that a jewish lobby is bad. Aren't jews allowed to lobby because they're jews?

4) the idea that jews are "white" and arabs are not. Both jews and arabs are white and for the same reasons: they're from caucasian stock. And the regions they inhabit have seen more than their share of invaders and migrants from up north, as well as centuries of import of christian slaves. North Africans with blond hair and blue eyes do exist. The special case in the region, the Iranians, are also white. Even more they're Indo-European Aryans (both Iran and Aryan have the same etymological root btw).

5) the idea that there weren't any jews in the region before the start of zionism. Wrong, jews have been living there continuously for nigh on 3000 years. Not all of them were deported to Babylon, not all of them were scattered to the 4 corners of the world by the Romans, not all of them were killed by the Crusaders when they freed the lands from the muslims. No, they've been there ever since their nomadic forefathers/mothers settled down.

6) the very idea that Israel or western nations are somehow equal to repressive and barbaric regimes/nations like Arabia, Lybia, Sudan, Iran, China, Zimbabwe, etc. If they're so very equal then why are the political refugees come to the west rather than vice-versa?

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